Posted
by
michael
on Saturday June 29, 2002 @03:34AM
from the saved-by-the-bell dept.

squarefish writes "CNN has this story about a hiker stranded in South America's Andes mountains when a blizzard begins. He reaches into his backpack for his cell phone -- only to find his prepaid minutes are up. Out of nowhere, a phone company solicitor is calling on his cell phone, asking if he would like to buy more time. Is this convenient or what?"

Although, if they had cell phones on that soccer/football (or was it rugby? I forget) that was forced to resort to cannibalism, they all probably would have gotten sales calls - after all, they always call during dinner.

as far as i know, you are still able to make emergency (911) calls from a cell phone even if it has no service agreement. however, seeing as it wasn't the united states, more power to the sales guy or something.next we'll be hearing a story about how spam saved someone's life. (i don't care whether its the canned or electronic kind, would be interesting either way:))

You'd think this would be true, but in the UK at least you certainly can't make emergency calls without a sim, and I'm not 100% sure you can even make them with no credit.
And you still can't make them on any network other than your own. I know that the gsm standards allow this to work, but it isn't done.

I'm in the UK and my Nokia 3330 on the Orange network will allow 112 and 999, without the sim but it's not obvious. On swithcing on, it says "insert sim" but if you type in 112 (or 999) as you hit the last digit, the display changes to "call"

Yeah my phone will dial 999 quite happily even when locked and the keypad is locked.Might be handy in an emergency but annoying when I take it out of my pocket and see its managed to dial 99 just by random jiggling in my pocket.

If the people desgining the hardware and software for the phone had half a brain, they'd check the battery status before attempting to switch it to 5x power usage and not do it if the battery were too low to support it..

I don't know about world-wide, but here in Europe 112 works without a SIM card. That's why most cities have places where you can donate your old phones (sans card), that they give to the elderly or homeless.I've dialed 112 once here in Germany. It seems to bypass the standard GSM call setup -- you're immediately connected to an operator, and it's got its own share of the available resources so you'll get through even when there's a network overload.

You're assuming he knew of the 112 emergency number. In the USA 911 is the only number which people are told about.

I doubt he knew of local customs (assuming he's from the USA -- I don't know if BellSouth runs cell systems outside the USA). He's not very well informed.

He didn't know this blizzard was approaching -- or that conditions made it likely.

He packed brandy instead of more necessary equipment -- like cell phone batteries or something that might have helped him not become "stranded" or "lost"...or a sleeping bag.

He got "lost". At least we don't know if it was his fault (no GPS? no map? not watching landmarks on the way in? just went "up" and didn't know the way back to town? couldn't read the trail signs in Spanish? no guide?) or not (genetically unable to learn map reading? white-out blizzard hid landmarks? -- how did rescuers get to him, then?).

He thought brandy would help keep him warm.

He left his cell phone on after he thought it was useless, instead of making his only battery last longer in case he thought of a use for it.

He thought cold was charging his battery. More likely just letting it rest is what allowed it to work again for a short time.

He had been putting his batteries in the freezer without knowing why he should. (Because it slows the chemical reactions which discharge even an unused battery.) And in the time since he was a child he hadn't found out.

He chose prepaid minutes but didn't make sure he had some for the climb...and he reached for his phone because he thought it was usable.

Living in Boston, I frequently hear about stranded hikers who call 911 while hiking in the White Mountains in New Hampshire. Cell phones have became so common and these calls happen so frequently that it has actually become a problem. To discourage this behavior (unprepared hikers
calling 911 to be rescued), the authorities came to a unique solution: Bill the caller for the cost of the rescue.

Let me be clear; not every hiker who calls 911 will be billed. If you have a genuine emergency, please use 911. But if you're stranded due to your own stupidity, you're going to pay.

furthurmore, if you park up there off the side of the highway, and dont place a sign in your car that reads along the lines of "this car is parked", they have to start looking for the driver no matter what. just a little bit of trivia from a local:)

I was sitting in my server room, watching all the blinking lights when a stranger entered the room.He pointed a gun at me and told me to empty my pockets. He was standing near the router when I noticed the lights turned solid. Strange I thought, but whatever, I had other things on my mind. As I was getting my wallet out, the router blew up sending shards of plastic into the stranger!!He was dead!!! I called 911 and the police came out and took the body away. I got a new router out of the closet and replaced the old one. When I placed the final cable in it, I went back to my desk and checked my email. I have 91532109672340969023 new messages!!! Wow. Spam and the linux kernel developers mailing lists saved my life!!!

I'm not a doctor or anything, but I don't think the bladder can absorb a significant amount of water. Your kidneys will use water to get the alcohol out of bloodstream, washing the waste into the bladder. You could hold it if you wanted too. I don't think it will help you stay warm,

The bladder doesn't (re)absorb water - thats what the kidneys are for. Alcohol causes a diuresis by inhibiting the effect of a naturally occuring hormone in the brain - ADH (Anti Diuretic Hormone). Alcohol also passes into the urine and drags the water with it - an osmotic effect. Retaining urine in your bladder won't keep you any warmer than passing it. You could use the heat of the urine to warm up more peripheral parts of yourself, but then again it may evaporate and cause further heat loss.

I think you can die of dehydration before you freeze to death.

Of course you can. Especially if its not that cold outside. If it is cold enough, the cold will get you first every time. It takes days to die from dehydration, but you can die from hypothermia much quicker than that.

Also you should keep moving and eat a little bit if you've got something, since both movement and digestion generate body heat.

Not bad advice, although your ability to generate heat = ability to consume oxygen, and either moving or eating will do this. However, you will use up your glucose stores rapidly if you are exercising hard, and this leads to fatigue (to some degree - you can still burn fat). If you are facing a sustained period of exertion, eating small amounts frequently helps alot.

mesocyclone said:
I wonder if the poster realizes that melting the snow in his clothes with his body heat lowers his body temperature just as much as eating it???

That's not true. What I recommended is standard instruction for winter survival. As Genyin noted, there's a difference between core body temperature and skin surface temperature.

It is possible to chill the surface temp without lowering the the core enough to die. (Perhaps you have heard of frostbite?) Eating snow
will lower your core temperature, thus increasing your chance of dieing. Placing a bottle between your many layers of clothing (we are intelligent hikers) *may* cool you enough to damage some skin, although that's unlikely.

True, but perception might be important here. We're dealing with someone who was awake for 24 hours here -- I'm not sure about this, but I can imagine that it might be easier to stay awake if you *feel* warmer, even if you're actually colder.

Also (and I might be completely wrong here, since I don't drink) doesn't brandy typically contain a significant amount of sugar?

Alcohol is a vasodialator, so you do get increased bloodflow, especially in surface capillary veins. So you do suffer from hypothermia at a greater rate, but you also prevent frostbite. Depending on the amount of exposed skin, drinking small amounts alcohol is often considered a good thing. If your boots get wet and then freeze, drinking is the only thing you can do to help keep the circulation going and save your toes. Alcohol and water are both vasodialators, but alcohol works best. Caffeine is a vasoconstrictor, which is a bad thing for frostbite. Brandy contains lots of sugars, so would have an overall warming effect, assuming he had reasonable clothing.

Chilling batteries can cause the output voltage to rise, because the internal resistance is a complex function based on temperature. I've seen the graphs of battery output for satellites, very non-linear, with several peaks and dips for different temperatures.

When my cell batteries goes "DEAD" (i.e. the phone powers off), if I wait a bit, I can get it to turn on for a bit (but only 2 seconds of "talk" time).

One time it took a few times to make it unrevivably dead. (I let it go dead because it had a memory effect [less and less capacity over time], even though the manual said that could not happen. My fix worked, BTW).

Some batteries may have a stronger "revival" effect than others.

It probably has something to do with chemical reactions and the capacitance of the cell.

Convenient, maybe. But what if he hadn't been stranded. How annoying would it be having a solicitor call you and try to cell you more pre-paid minutes every time you run out. I thought it was against some kind of law that phone solicitors could not call your cellular phone anyway? (Correct me if I am wrong)

This might be me, but i would much rather have a phone company solicitor call to sell me minutes when im running out than a sales rep offering to sell me a "package" deal where i can consolidate my health ins, car, home, and school loans, not to mention my phone bill for a mere $250/month extra.

Most likly it was the phone company, they are allowed to call you anytime they want and it is free. He also could have called the company and refilled them that way. Calling customer service is free (with any plans I ever heard of)

I thought it was against some kind of law that phone solicitors could not call your cellular phone anyway? (Correct me if I am wrong)

Actually, I think it's only illegal because it costs you extra money (via the per-minute charges) when they call you - if it's your own phone company, and they don't bill you for those minutes, they may be able to get around that restriction.

--The Rizz

"Researchers have discovered that chocolate produces some of the same reactions in the brain as marijuana. The researchers also discovered other similarities between the two, but can't remember what they are." --Matt Lauer

It's more convenient than you think. How did the hiker get stranded in the first place? My theory is that the phone company had a hand in getting him lost in the first place. Who benefits? Suddenly here is a heartwarming story that makes the phone solicitors look like benign life-saving angels rather than annoying pricks paid to disrupt our most precious moments of peace....

If you're out of pre-paid minutes, the only people who can call you are employees of the mobile phone network in question, and they are not calling you any money. In your service agreement for prepay cellular, you probably agree to this type of call.

I worked in a battery shop for a few months. Cooling batteries makes them discharge slower, and freezing them destroys them (expanding/crystalizing electrolite destroys the membrane between the plates). Last month I left my cell in the car overnight, it got a bit cold (in the 40s), and my phone wouldn't work until the battery warmed back up.

...also, as Jeff67 points out:"Alcohol only gives the perception of warmth. It does it by dilating blood vessels in the skin. The result is you lose heat faster. Drinking when you're really cold is a good way to get dead."

So, fake longer battery life, and fake warmth. In short, this looks like a bogus story. I guess CNN is taking it's cues from the Chinese news media these days...

It also lowers the internal resistance on the battery, and therefore raises slightly the voltage at the terminals. When you are powering electronic equipment it is just possible that from a weak battery you don't have enough volts until the battery is cold. Although I really doubt it happened in this case - Phone batteries generally have very flat voltage curves (i.e. the voltage only varies slightly with charge level) and they also have a sharp cut off (so when the voltage drops below the level needed to run the phone there is very little power left in the battery).

At least in the US, cellphone carriers are required by law to allow all 911 calls through on any cellphone, whether it's activated or not. The law is pretty strictly enforced, too. It's reasonable to assume that wherever he was, a similar service or law exists.

I can imagine that 1) there was some sort of equivalent service in his area, and 2) his service should have a number to call, like '0' or '611' to talk to someone about adding minutes to his calling plan. The guy was smart enough (and lucid enough) to know that chilling batteries rejuvenates them to some extent, but couldn't figure out how to get a hold of anyone on a service that doesn't require "charged" minutes? He's getting more credit than he deserves.

Regardless, if such emergency services aren't available where he was, let it be a lesson to the carriers there. Someone could easily hold them liable for not permitting emergency calls to go through, where life-threatening situations exist.

The Colombian mountaineer slowly begins freezing to death, surviving for 24 hours with his only warmth coming from carefully measured doses of brandy.

Do not do this. Alcohol dilates the capillaries, thus actually lowering the body temperature. You feel warmer because of the desensitizing effect, but booze will just make you freeze faster. Details can be found e. g. here. [hoptechno.com]

However....
Alcohol also acts as anti-freeze.
You may know of the story about the Baker on the Titanic.
The normal survival time in the icy cold waters at that time was only a few minutes.
The baker had the right idea and got trashed just before it went under. The Baker was picked up 2 hours later, and he survived.

I was sitting on my couch taking a sick day (sick of work) when the phone rings. It's the PBX I said, I gotta go in. Maybe someone forgot their password (bonehead, no - that's what I reset their password to last time).

So after some quick agonizing I take the call, hoping it isn't my boss in a panic. It's Pacific Bell. The nice lady wans to know if I'm interested in signing up for CallerID.

They have cellphone coverage at the top of a mountain? I find that someone difficult to believe.
Also why would anyone take their phone climbing with them and not have any credit on it?
Ok, so I'm sure they didn't just make it up, but it does seem stranmge

No, they usually put the towers into the well-occupied areas of the valleys. But as a lot of people already pointed out, being high up at 12000+ feet you have a good view and clear line of sight to the towers. The normal radius for a gsm cell (dunno if the value is for 900/1800MHz or both) is 37,8km (23,5miles), so that is baically the max distance they can bridge. In theory the handset itself only needs that range to stay in touch at all times, but I suppose (depending on battery strength, antenna gain, atmospheric disturbances, whatever) the phones range might be a good 40-45km (24 to 28miles). This is the raw theory, in reality (or urbanity) most GSM cells are designed to be way smaller and generate a decent amount of overlap so handovers from one cell to another go well. That way the handsets don't have to beam away at full power. I think GSM usually send with 2 watts output power, but on the pretty old Siemens S4 GSM phone you could just extract the antenna and close a circuit which would boost the phone to 4 watts.

Also why would anyone take their phone climbing with them and not have any credit on it? [...] but it does seem stranmge

I am not very knowledgeable of the climbers scene, but I tend to think that most serious climbers would value someone who a) goes alone despite unclear weather conditions and b) brings booze instead of gear and c) won't carry a fallback security device (2nd phone or battery) and d) doesn't even check the functionality of his security device, well, they would probably value him "wannabe" or something.

I am using GSM standard phone here. If you turn it on and call emergency number (better not give it,people know it already), even if you don't have a SIM card installed, it will rise the power like 5x (antenna) and call it.

I have read that same there in USA (911) too... So, who the heck he tried to call I wonder? Its well documented on ALL mobile phones as a part of standard.

Contrary to popular belief, it is easier to get signals on top of mountains. Why? Because at the top of the mountain you have line-of-sight with many different ground antennas. It is the same reason that you get a good 'view':)

Also, from my personal experience in the Alpes, phones seem to work pretty well at high altitudes - so much, that I even get signals from neighbouring countries' networks sometimes. The major problem with large height is that your cellphone might appear in many cells simultaneously and the networks might become confused. (And this could be one of the reasons why you can't use a cellphone inside an airplane)

As far as the batteries are concerned.. I am aware that lower temperatures lower the reaction strength => the internal resistance of the battery increases => it becomes unusable very quickly. However it works again when it becomes warm. This does appear bogus...

... what do you expect from a story related with telemarketers and reported by Journalists working in US Media Conglomerate B]

The major problem with large height is that your cellphone might appear in many cells simultaneously and the networks might become confused.

Confused because the the network dosn't think the cells are adjacent or possibly even the handset is trying to roam back and forth between different networks.

(And this could be one of the reasons why you can't use a cellphone inside an airplane)

The major reason is that the avionics systems arn't certified to handle cellphones, in the cabin. Apparently people sucessfully made calls from the planes hijacked on September the 11th using cellphones.One possible approach would be to install picocells in aircraft.

Yeah, actually - as I understood it, the problem with phones appearing on multiple cell towers and causing network problems was a real event with analog cellphones. When they went to digital networks, this was taken care of.

I heard one story of a guy flying in a private plane who used his analog cellphone to make a call. The call went through just fine, but when his bill came at the end of the month, he was triple-charged for roaming calls made at the same time.

It sounds like a urban legend to me.To give the story some credibility it should have stated where he was found.This fact could be compared with known base stations, and verified the claim or if it was possible.

Well the posts seem to all say the same thing, here's a summary:In most places, Emergency Calls are free.An obscure mountain path durring a blizzard doesnt seem like the most likely place to get cellphone coverage.Soliciting on Cellphones is illegal in many places, just like soliciting on Fax Machines.

.. who claim that you shouldn't drink alcohol in extreme hypothermic conditions?

Alcohol dilates the blood vessels and the rush amplifies your body heat. True, you lose heat faster and in 'normally' cold conditions you shouldn't drink alcohol. But if you're stuck in a freezing mountain, you need to keep comfortable to keep awake, which is essential to your survival. And the article says the guy is relying on carefully measured doses of brandy. Limiting intake is essential.

Alcoholic beverages are actually present in most hikers' backpacks for this purpose (and also for treating wounds, due to its antiseptic nature).

And what's up with "you shouldn't drink anything at all in hypothermic conditions"? In fact, you should drink adequate amounts [hoptechno.com] of liquids. Water, as most liquids, preserves your temperature. The only time you shouldn't intake liquids is when you're already victimized by hypothermia (in other words, you're already unconscious or near unconsciousness so you can't really do anything anymore, but this is handy advice for people who encounter hypothermia victims -- don't give them food or drink).

In Canada we use CDMA [on a tri-band xmitter no less]. You can dial 911 if the phone is user-locked [e.g. enter code] or just locked [hit two keys to unlock]. You have to pay 0.25$ a month for a 911 "connection fee". Without a service plan I'm sure the phone will call 911 but I have never tried.

Another little tidbit. If anyone has ever dialed 911 on a phone its somewhat interesting. My motorolla v120 will sit in "emergency mode" and do a funny beep. You can't dial any other number until you reset the phone [e.g. power down].

Another little tidbit. If anyone has ever dialed 911 on a phone its somewhat interesting. My motorolla v120 will sit in "emergency mode" and do a funny beep. You can't dial any other number until you reset the phone [e.g. power down].

Having called 911 on my cellphone (a Nokia 6120) before, they display "EMERGENCY xxx xxx xxxx" during a 911 call, where xxx xxx xxxx is your cellphone number. You also don't have to power the phone down to return it to normal...just hit the End key like you normally would.

One of the two huge forest fires in Arizona (which have now merged into one) was set by an equally clueless hiker who decided to set a signal fire to attract a rescuer. It worked - a TV helicopter rescued her. But it also set a wildfire (the Chediski fire) which is now part of the record-setting Rodeo-Chediski fire which has been in world news lately. It is burning the largest stand of Ponderosa pines in the world, not to mention hundreds of structures.

Sigh.

If people are going to get lost, they oughta at least prepare for the fact! Of course, if they were prepared, they probably wouldn't get lost in the first place.

That's right, boys and girls, telemarketers are not only a nuisance, they also create deeply ingrained reflexes that can hamper your survival if you happen to be drunk, stranded and out of minutes at the same time...

Did you hug a telemarketer today? Good! Keep hugging him until he chokes.

QUIT WHILE YOU'RE AHEAD!;)
You may be the only (fictional) telemarketer to have inspired more gratitude than raw, stomach-churning hatred, so get out of the business right away! And live the rest of your life on cat food and talk show appearances:)

Every prepaid cell phone I've ever used has allowed emergency calls, and/or calls to order more minutes, even when expired. Certainly, it would be in the phone company's interest to have an order line for more time, even if it wouldn't take emergency calls. Why didn't the hiker call it earlier? Or did he forget he had his phone?